Welcome to Bales’ MLB Game Theory. In this article, I will outline my favorite plays at each position for MLB’s Sunday slate. You can find all of Karma’s staff cores through our MLB Premium Package. Without further ado, here are my favorite plays at each position.
| Pitcher | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF |
| Giolito | Tellez | Biggio | Donaldson | Anderson | Acuna Jr. |
| Cole | Abreu | Camargo | Devers | Villar | Ruf |
| Maeda | Freeman | McNeil | Andujar | Garcia | Robles |
| Civale | Smith | Marte | Muncy | Robertson | Frazier |
| Bumgarner | Shaw | Estrada | Escobar | Polanco | Harrison |
Tilt your mobile device on its side for optimal viewing
*If you don’t already play 3 lineups and 3 max entry contests daily, try using the teams provided in the stacks above to maximize upside and correlation in your MLB lineups.
Slate Thoughts:
- This is a great pitching slate, although you’re going to have to make decisions in cash games. There are three top options in Lucas Giolito, Gerrit Cole, and Kenta Maeda. That’s the order I have them ranked with Giolito being my top option. Cole may garner the most ownership of the trio, though. You can potentially pair two of these three together with the number of value options on this slate. If you want to spend down at SP2, though, there are three more options – Justus Sheffield, Seth Lugo, and Kyle Gibson. Once again, this is my order of preference. Ideally, I’ll end with either Giolito/Cole or Giolito/Sheffield depending on what I opt to do with my bats.
- You can use any of the above six pitching options in tournaments. Giolito may be the best option, as Cole is likely to lead the pitchers in ownership. I also prefer Lugo over Sheffield in tournaments tonight. Aaron Civale is an elite tournament option on this slate. He gets a great matchup. The final tier of GPP pitchers on this slate includes Brandon Woodruff, Max Fried, and Tony Gonsolin. If you want to save money in GPPs at the SP2 slot, you can consider Trevor Cahill.
- The Atlanta Braves will garner quite a bit of ownership tonight, specifically Ronald Acuna Jr. who comes in underpriced for his talent. The Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees are two great stacking options tonight that feature players with surprisingly low price tags. Either can be used in cash tonight, and they will help you spend up at both pitcher spots, as well. The final cash stack is the Chicago White Sox, although they rarely get elite ownership. I may lean them more in GPPs than cash because of their price tags, as well.
- The San Francisco Giants are arguably my top stacking option on this slate. They would all for a double spend-up at pitcher, as well. The Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins, and New York Mets are high upside stacks, as well. Once again, this depends on what you opt to do at pitcher.
- NOTE: The Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels game is the first of a double-header, meaning it will only be seven innings. It makes the bats significantly riskier.
